I've been interrupted in my various attempts to think carefully about your reply, but now I think I can manage something.

I'd like to start with this comment:

"I see my calling, especially since I retired from regular parish ministry, to be helping the church to carry out its mission in a scientific & technological world. John Mangum put it some years ago, â€œâ€œTodayâ€™s churches have no other place to fulfill their mission than a world whose basic assumptions are pervaded more and more by science.â€